On May 28, 2017, an 18-year-old Terran Campbell stretched out his leg to meet a low skipping cross into the box and tapped home his first professional goal.

His Vancouver Whitecaps 2 team lost 2-1 to Real Monarchs on that day in USL Championship action, but on the turf at McLeod Athletic Park Stadium in Langley, B.C., Campbell ignited what has since been a prolific goalscoring career.

That reputation was truly formed two years later when he joined Pacific FC, scoring 11 goals in the Canadian Premier League’s inaugural campaign. In fact, with 39 CPL goals to his name between the regular season and playoffs, the Burnaby native has scored more times than any other player in the league’s six-year history.

Campbell spent his first three seasons in the league with the Tridents, winning a CPL title in 2021. Following that campaign, he joined Forge FC, with whom he won two further CPL titles in 2022 and 2023.

Now, at age 26, Campbell will lace up his goalscoring boots for Vancouver FC, a club who plays their home matches at the Langley Events Centre, just a nine-minute drive from where he scored that first pro goal. The Eagles announced his signing on Thursday to a two-year guaranteed contract with an option for 2027.

“It feels good to be in Vancouver, it’s the place where it all started for me,” said Campbell. “I’m excited to join Vancouver FC and I’m ready to give my all on the field. My goal this season is to help the team reach the playoffs and compete for a title.”

Campbell will be hoping this homecoming can re-ignite his goalscoring form as during 2024, for the first season in league history, he was held goalless. Limited extensively by injury, Campbell made just seven appearances, totalling 309 minutes. His lone goal of the campaign as a whole came in a 3-1 loss to Chivas Guadalajara in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup.

But that campaign has been the exception to the rule in Campbell’s CPL career. Only one other player in the league’s history has scored double-digit goals across three different CPL seasons. That player, Vancouver FC striker Alejandro Díaz, is now Campbell’s teammate once again.

Campbell and Díaz initially joined forces in both 2020 and 2021 for Pacific FC. In 2021, they became the first duo from the same club to hit double-digit goal totals in a single season, with Campbell scoring 11, and Díaz tallying 10. It is a feat which has only been repeated once, when Campbell and Woobens Pacius each scored ten for Forge in 2023.

Díaz sits second all-time behind Campbell in CPL goals scored, with 38. If they can re-ignite their dynamic partnership, the Eagles instantly become an attacking force to be feared.

After soaring to a strong start to their 2024 campaign, in second place in table by week 12, Vancouver FC finished a disappointing seventh, missing the playoffs. A big part of that was due to an attack that lost its wings over the second half of the campaign — they scored just ten times in their final 14 matches, and were shutout six times.

Signing a proven goalscorer like Campbell will go a long way toward addressing that issue. It is the type of move they hope can help the club soar to new heights in 2025.